Meteora

It has been more than a week since my last post.  We have left Neapoli behind for adventures in the rest of the country.  We have found that Neapoli and the Pelopennese in general is different than the rest of Greece.  They are not as tourist focused as we have found elsewhere.  Athens was pretty intense.  The Plaka area is where people go to buy old word gifts and eat traditional food (read: where people go to buy shit and eat overpriced food that is labeled "traditional").  Greek salads have lettuce up here, this is very strange.  A real Greek salad is really something else, nothing like what you find in a Coney Island or Panera.  I think we have had one a day, almost every time we eat out.

Today we hiked to the top of Meteora.  I encourage you to look up pictures.  Those pinacles of rock, we pretty much walked from the bottom to the top.  Arriving only to find hordes of tourists in chartered busses.  Thats ok, I cant imagine they enjoyed the view as much as we did, having earned it.  We were dead tired and took the bus down though.  There are several active monestaries on the top.  the nuns/monks are kind enough to let people visit for a small fee.  I was suprised to see some young people among the cloistered.  I had always pictured mostly matrons as nuns.  I wonder how often they get off their rocks and see the rest of the world.  We joked last night as we ate ice cream in the main square of town that they were up there praying for our souls because of our sinfull indulgences, like ice cream.  By the way, Greece has some kick ass ice cream.  Those of you who know how much I like ice cream will take this seriously;  I may have had the best ice cream ever here.  They have really good cheese here too: within the EU, any cheese that is called feta has to have been produced in Greece.

Tomorrow we will take busses to Delphi for the last of the ancient sites we will visit.  I expect to consult the oracle regarding my future education and vocation.  After that back to Athens for more museums, a little shopping and hopefully some good food before our flight out.

It is hard to believe the our time here is almost up.  It has been quite a trip, and there is still more to come.  Good news though, Julie and I still like each other. Though there have been moments of tension, mostly over whih way to go.  We both like maps and can read one better than the other.  We both run out of energy at times and need to be led around by hand to food/bed/bathroom, whatever.  Fortunatly we have not both run out at the same time.  We would probably be found in a corner confused and hungry, unable to make a decsion about which way to go.

I hope to blog again soon with a little more reflection.  Reflection is hard in this "cafe" though.  Between the sound of kids playing LAN games and cigarette smoke (yes, those two go together) I can hardly think.